Last week we published a photo of a McDonalds we passed in Moscow. The New York Times follows up with an article on the new design sweeping European McDonalds.

The Golden Arches are going upscale. Aiming to create a more relaxed experience in a sophisticated atmosphere, McDonald’s is replacing bolted-down plastic yellow-and-white furniture with lime-green designer chairs and dark leather upholstery. It is the restaurant chain’s biggest overhaul in more than 20 years and, with its franchisees, it plans to spend more than 600 million euros ($828 million), remodeling 1,280 European restaurants by the end of this year… The designs range from “purely simple,” with minimalist décor in neutral colors, to “Qualité,” featuring large pictures of lettuces and tomatoes and gleaming stainless steel kitchen utensils, like meat grinders.

After purchasing YouTube last November for $1.65 billion, Google has yet to show how they plan on getting their money back. It’s been assumed that this would come from some sort of ad revenue scheme, but just how has remained a mystery. Last night, they announced that they were introducing a new type of video ad that was “unobtrusive and kept users in control of what they saw.”

After starting a video, the new ads will pop up on the bottom fifth of the window - similar to news updates on TV. The ad will stay there for about 10 seconds if left alone. However, the viewer has the option of closing the ad after it pops up, or alternatively, clicking on the ad. If clicked on, their current video will pause and a new window will open and a video ad will begin playing. When the video ad is over, the window will close and the original video will resume from where it stopped.

The New York Times reports:

“What we have come up with is a user-controlled ad format that is engaging,” said Eileen Naughton, Google’s director for media platforms. “We want our users to be able to accept and choose what type of advertising they engage in.”

For now, Google will place the ads only on video clips of its content partners — the more than 1,000 small and large media companies that have licensed their videos to YouTube. By doing so, YouTube will avoid the potential liability of having ads appear on copyrighted clips it is not authorized to display. And it will also prevent ads from playing on clips generated by users whose message may not be to the liking of advertisers.

The revenue from the ads will be split between the media partner and YouTube. Ms. Naughton said Google would charge advertisers $20 for every 1,000 times the ads were displayed. Google said the ads would begin appearing today throughout the site. Ms. Naughton also said advertisers would be able to take aim at specific channels and genres, as well as demographic profiles, geography and hour of the day.

Independent research company, Luxury Institute, which focuses it’s research on only the top 10% of America’s wealthy, has created a list of the top ten myths about wealth and luxury from a marketing and branding perspective. In it, they dismiss many long held assumptions that America’s super wealthy are all drinking Cristal on their Yachts and throwing money at anything that moves.

In actuality, they’re typically very hard working, savvy consumers who are value conscious and have acute brand recognition. Most spent years working long hours to get where they are and continue to adhere to smart business practices by actively seeking out both quality and value in their purchases. Their ability to define true luxury, individually, and as a group, is laser-accurate. Also due to the long hours most wealthy people work, their reliance on the internet is even stronger. They rely on trusted websites for reviews and ratings and do fairly compressive research online before making purchases.

Another interesting conclusion of the report is the growing demand for luxury services as opposed to luxury goods. Expensive stuff is just a tiny piece of the pie, and innovative services including everything from wealth management to simple child care for the ultra elite are expected to become more abundant and profitable in the future.

And apparently, the most under-served wealthy are those with a new worth from $ 1 million to $50 million, particularly in luxury services.

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